Howdy Folks: I'm trying to play the German side of Greyhound Dash and to start I want to establish a defensible front between "Hutton" and "Fisenne." To have any hope of doing this, my units starting near "Samree" have to make a mad dash for the front and waste absolutely no time on the American supply base located at "Samree." Now I've tried just about everything to get my units to ignore and bypass the supply base, but they refuse to comply (to the point of ignoring my orders and routing), is there a way to intentionally bypass an enemy unit even though it fires at your units. There really should be.

(I'm trying to include a nice map to help explain this, but I can't seem to do that either.) OK, I guess it did work.

Actually, the losses should be set to "max" and aggro to minimum, in order to avoid that your units

a) halt, search for cover or stop/deploy once the enemy base unit has opened fire, and b) that your units return fire for a longer time than necessary.

In turn, min aggro can be tricky, as this may make your unit reluctant to proceed and follow the ordered path/move order, especially if fatigue starts to kick in. Enemy strongpoints or road blocks (deployed, dug in or even fortified units), even if they have been manned by a really small force only (like Group Butlar in Arnheim), can provide some pesky suppressive fire, with the possibility to force your unit to retreat almost instantly, especially if Intel is missing - means if they "stumble" over a deployed or defending enemy base unit.

In my experience, units which are set to max losses and min aggro will fire "on the go" (well almost), with less chances of holding up the whole column.

You can also try to rush in say 1 or 2 Bns with the method described above (with min aggro + max losses), and then hit MAX aggro and MAX ROF once your unit(s) is pretty much right on top of the base unit (works excellent at night). While it may sound "gamey" at first, it basically simulates Germans storming an Army depot perimeter and capturing all its personnel within minutes, with few or even no rounds fired, or - on some occasions, with a short and evil rain of bullets.

Even though small/medium Army depots didn't have a lot of security personnel (AFAIK), at least COTA insisted that a force of say 1000 troops in such a base unit (and we're talking about drivers, administrators, quartermasters, etc., AA detachment, security detachment) would be capable of scaring off and routing your line infantry, and even tanks. So, if your units have the right amount of troops, sheer numbers will make the base unit surrender - using the "rush"-method, no matter what.

In the initial phases of the Ardennes offensive, the German armored columns often encountered US 57mm AT guns, so they would stop, destroy the gun and kill or drive off the crew and would then get back to speed again, usually taking less than 5 mins for the entire procedure. Taking out a supply base should take out some more time, but not a full day or even more, like in COTA. The changes in BFTB's code (surrenders, routing) might cater for that, well, hopefully.

Thanks Deathtreader and GoodGuy: I've had some limited success using your suggestions (sometimes: I can't even get repeatable results), but never completely. I guess it depends on the AI's mood. What would work well, would be the option to disconnect the AI for a set of orders so the units would do what you want them to irregardless of the AI's opinion. Sometimes I love the AI, sometimes it frustrates the living hell out of me, or maybe I didn't realize that a Supply Base was such a potent defensive formation. I do know that if the German Army actually fought that way during WW II, they never would have made it into Vienna, let alone the rest of Europe. I think I'll stick to playing the American side.

You are going to have to designate an assault company to take out the supply base at the get-go. These bases are weak installations with a low combat component. Since you are in a town the assault Coy should be an infantry type unit. Back up the assault with the remaining battalion and divisional bombardment.

In the meantime give orders to the other battalions with waypoints around Samree with 'avoidance' path and bypass checked.

(playing with the latest patch) I have the base surrendered within the hour and by 10:30, 60. Pzgr Rgt occupying Beffe.

Been there, done that, got a T-shirt; even tried it with two battalions assaulting and still won't work. What will let me spring my Panzer V's loose, is a 30 min barrage to the north of the dreaded Super base, but not on it so it can't retreat in that direction, then have the Infantry Batt and the Mech Inf Batt fire on the base from their starting positions also for 30 minutes. I then gave my tank batt a defend task with fastest speed and quickest route with the bypass option only and max losses, nothing else. If you try to specify a route around the north of Samree, it'll wuss out and want to take cover from the big bad base, if you set it to quickest route, it'll go exactly the same route you tried to specify without the wussy act (don't ask me why). Anyway, the Panzer V's make it to the front before the American"s and then it's their turn to wuss out (with good cause). I've only tried this once so far, so I can't say this will work every time. I've saved and shutdown at 18:03 Day 5 and I've weathered the storm pretty good so far and the line is still holding (relatively), although I'm bruised from head to toe. I don't think any of my units will recover enough to go on the offensive from Hotton to Marche, in fact I think I'd be lucky to come out with a draw, but for now the Win/Lose gauge is still in the middle .

I also made the the late discovery that two reinforcement AA companies are packing some 88's. I didn't get to fully exploit their potential this time round, but you can bet your sweet a$$ they'll be put to better use the next time -- "Hey Sherman, come take a look at this"